Air, Water, Pasta....RECIPE

After last week's pasta post, there was a request for an actual recipe for how I made the dish pictured. To be honest, when I make pasta I generally just add "a little of this, a little of that", but I completely understand that trial and error can be scary. So I'll do my best to provide an actual recipe. Here goes...

Angel Hair with Garlic Shrimp and Asparagus
Serves 4-6
1 lb. Angel Hair pasta (I prefer Barilla enriched/whole grain)
3 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbs. butter
2 or 3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 bunch fresh aparagus (8-10 spears), tough ends snapped off and chopped into 1-inch pieces
10 grape tomatoes, sliced in half
1/2 lb. pre-cooked frozen shrimp, thawed (the peeled/deveined ones are easiest to work with)
1 lemon
3-4 leaves fresh basil, chopped
1/2 cup fresh parmesean cheese, shredded
Fresh ground pepper and salt to taste

Fill a large pot with water and a few pinches of salt, place over high heat to boil.

Place asparagus in a microwave safe container with a lid and microwave on medium heat for 1 minute or until just tender. Remove from microwave and rinse under cool water to stop the cooking process. Set aside.

In a large skillet, melt olive oil and butter over medium heat. Add garlic and saute for 1 minute, until fragrant. Add the asparagus and saute 1 minute more. Then add the shrimp and turn heat to low. Continue to saute, stirring occassionally until the shrimp are bright pink and tightly curled (this is a wierd description but they do seem to "tighten" or firm up over heat).

While the shrimp are cooking, check your pasta water, which should be boiling. Add your angel hair and cook for 4-5 minutes or until just barely cooked. Before draining pasta, ladle about 1/2 cup of the boiling water into your saute pan with the shrimp. Drain pasta and set aside.

Stir shrimp and vegetables in the saute pan to incorporate the water. Add the tomatoes and basil and squeeze in the juice from half of the lemon. Use a cheese grater (or a zester if you have one) to scrape some of the yellow rind (zest) from the outside of the lemon and add to the pan. Add the pasta and most of the parmesean cheese and toss until the veggies are evenly distributed and the pasta is coated in the "sauce". Salt and pepper to taste.

Dump the pasta into a large serving dish and top with more shredded parmesean and another squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Enjoy!